We're not going to make it down to Spoleto this year. Partly that's because there weren't many events that really piqued our interest, but mostly of course it's a logistical question, what with looking after Spencer (or lil' Bush for the fans of that show among you) and the cost of gas and staying down in Charleston and just general busy-ness here at home practicing an Allen Shawn solo piece and Steven Mackey's Indigenous Instruments for Present Music next week, and preparations for the Bennington Chamber Music Conference later this summer...

Of course there is the wonderful chamber music series and a number of friends and colleagues are playing there and I would have loved to catch a concert or two. Dock Street Theatre is under renovation so they are temporarily taking place at Memminger Auditorium. As with the chamber series at the Columbia Museum of Art, Charles Wadsworth appears to be taking first steps towards handing off the reins of the Spoleto chamber series somewhat, as Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence Quartet is serving as an assistant "curator" of the series.

But if I could go to only one event at Spoleto during the run, it would be the four-hour work by Morton Feldman for flute, percussion, and piano, "For Philip Guston." This takes place next Wednesday June 3 on the Music in Time series, brilliantly curated lo these many years by John Kennedy and located in the Recital Hall on the gorgeous College of Charleston campus. The chance to detach oneself from the normal perceptions of the passage of time (sans hallucinogens, or heck, avec if you prefer) made possible by hearing this work of Feldman's live rarely presents itself, especially in this part of the world. Just make sure you pee right before. And don't drink a lot right beforehand either, nor eat anything terribly, um, controversial. In other words, you don't want anything to disrupt your ability to listen for four hours. But, since the show starts at 5 PM, think of the incredible dinner that can be your reward afterwards in this very special city, with its many enticing and creative restaurants.

For preparatory reading on Morton Feldman, I highly recommend this New Yorker piece from a couple years ago by Alex Ross, who writes eloquently about both Feldman the memorable character and Feldman the creator of "vast, quiet, agonizingly beautiful worlds of sound." Other Spoleto-related reading worth checking out: Jeffrey Day's piece in the State last Friday on Columbia's resident bassoon whiz, Peter Kolkay, who'll be playing on some of the chamber concerts; and the New York Times is running a Spoleto blog of its own.